:: BB INTERVIEWS ::

:: SOUL OF MAN ::

Soul of Man - The Mind, the Body, the Music Matt Young hears it from one of breakkeats pioneers Rave. The be all and end all. The 'Summer of Love' in 1989 was the catalyst for a tidal wave of newly created dance music nights, DJs and producers. One such wide eyed rave baby was Justin Rushmore. A regular at the infamous M25 orbital parties that took place during that debauched time, Justin’s mobile jockeying was put to one side as the growing, snarling behemoth that was to become house music took over. Much has been written about that time and for that reason, we’re not going to concentrate on the why's or wherefore's of what is to many ravers a distant memory. Let if be suffice to say that between Justin Rushmore, his partner and co-producer Jem Panufnik, the growing trend of breakbeat music, and a couple of Plump friends, a monster was created. This monster is now known as Finger Lickin’ Records – arguably the largest and most influential breaks label in the world today. Soul of Man, the duo of Justin and Jem, brought forth the smash hits Killa Brew, Dirty Waltzer and the recently released Shake ‘Em Down. Matt Young caught up with Justin to pick his brain on the 'ins and outs' of being commander in chief of the breaks label that even your Mum has heard of. How long have you been DJing overall? Probably close of 19 years now. How would you most accurately describe your DJing style? Funky eclectic house influenced breaks, to put it loosely. How did you end up being involved with breaks? I opened a shop, Vinyl Addiction, nine years ago and met Aston and Matt of the Freestylers. When I started hearing their early stuff on Freskanova, I went crazy! It was a very different sound to what everyone else was doing at the time. My music partner Jem and I decided to drop the 4/4 kick that was predominant in our productions and replaced it with a breakbeat, and Finger Lickin’ records was created! When you first started Finger Lickin’ Records, did you ever see it becoming as big as it is? It was originally set up in 1998 and of course we had it no idea that it would grow into such a huge international label that it is today. It was originally a vehicle for our production work, but we soon met Lee Coombs and Lee & Andy Plump and it just grew from there. Is running a label as glamorous as it seems? In a word, no. Running a business means adhering to systems and learning through your own mistakes. We have to take into account accounting, people management, long hours, all for little financial reward. I guess that sheds some light on the glamour side of things – although the weekends are a lot of fun! Being head of arguably the biggest breaks label in the world, how have things changed for you, both in terms of day-to-day and DJing? It certainly has meant a sacrifice for what we originally set the label up for. I have continued to juggle my time with the DJing, and that hasn’t really slowed down at all, but as for producing it has definitely taken a back seat while we have nurtured the likes of the The Plumps, Lee Coombs and the Drummatic Twins. We basically do the work of a major label, but there are only four of us in the office. However, come September I’m back on a roll with Jem so expect a lot of hot Soul of Man productions over the forthcoming months. How do feel about the recent departure of Lee Coombs? It was a musical direction that Lee wanted to pursue. He is very focussed on his sound resting more in a house camp rather than the breaks scene. His current single ‘Shiver’ we have signed to Azuli, a house label. It’s a shame in some ways because he was the first artist we signed but we are still good mates. You recently did a Y4K mix for Distinctive Breaks. How did this come about, and why did you decide to put out a mix on another label rather than your own? The Y4K series is a good brand in breaks and we wanted to showcase what we do as DJ’s. We have never put out mix comps on Finger Lickin’ and so for another label to do the work seemed like a great idea. We had an excellent response from the CD itself. It was voted in DJ Mag’s top 10 CD’s, which was brilliant news for us, and it sold really well. Obviously you did very well at Breakspoll this year. How do you react to claims that Finger Lickin’ seem to hold a monopoly over Breakspoll? They had 7,000 votes for Breakspoll this year and they were all genuine votes. Also, there was a system in place to ensure that nobody voted twice, and that if too many votes were received from the same company they would be discarded. Obviously, its great to win three years running, but at the same time it is kind of embarrassing. The fact is that we work really hard and have used our initiative and talent to position our brand worldwide. We have put out great records, and the sales reflect this. There are many brilliant producers and labels out there, but at present they are not all sitting in one camp. We are very lucky to have the artists that we have on our roster, but equally we have been very loyal to their careers. They are all making a living doing what they love and they have the full support of the label of the management behind them. We have been doing it for seven years, and with that comes experience. Having said all that, it would be nice next year to see another label steal the trophy. So c’mon guys!!! :: September 2005 :: Additional information on Soul of Man and Finger Lickin' Records can be found at www.fingerlickin.co.uk

:: BACK ::